The Houston Community College board on Thursday censured trustee Yolanda Navarro Flores after a year-long investigation found she used her influence to direct work to her son's construction company and to obtain free consulting from a vendor.

The investigation — which also found troubling behavior by Trustee Chris Oliver and former board members Abel Dávila and Diane Olmos Guzman — called into question the business practices at one of the nation's largest community college systems.

HCC Board Chairman Richard Schechter pledged a review of the college district's policies. "This board has zero tolerance for this kind of conduct," he said.

Schechter said the investigation portrayed Flores and Dávila as the most egregious offenders, with the two appearing "to have been engaged in a relentless pattern and practice of conduct designed to enrich at a minimum their family and friends."

Flores, who was not present for the 7-0 censure vote, told trustees afterward that she was unaware her son did work for HCC.

Dávila and Guzman have denied wrongdoing, and Oliver apologized for making an "honest mistake" by voting on a contract for a company with connections to his construction cleaning firm. Oliver, the report said, had filed the required disclosure paperwork.

Findings given to DA

The board has censured Flores twice before for making inappropriate demands and accusations, and she has indicated no plans to resign before her term ends in 2013. Thursday's censure will prevent Flores from using her trustee expense account.

"I am the subject of these false allegations because I have been diligent in reporting abuse of taxpayer monies and student revenues," said Flores, an attorney and former state representative.

Schechter said the trustees don't have the power to remove an elected colleague from office. They can file a lawsuit seeking removal, but such suits typically last years and are unsuccessful.

HCC officials turned over the investigative findings to Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos' office but have been told the file was closed, which suggests no criminal charges will be filed, Schechter said.

According to the report, Dávila told an unnamed administrator that Flores asked Dávila, then the board chairman, "to help get her son hired by an HCC vendor."

A company owned by or connected to Flores' son, Larry Flores, was hired as a subcontractor for an HCC vendor and was paid nearly $163,000 between December 2008 and October 2009, the report said.

Flores also is accused in the report of demanding that an unnamed vendor provide free consulting services for two of her political campaigns — or risk losing its HCC contract and business in the Hispanic community.

In a statement read by Schechter on Thursday, trustees also condemned Dávila for helping friends get construction contracts and Guzman for not paying a vendor for campaign billboards.

Dávila is accused of helping a start-upconstruction company, founded by a pharmacy technician who is afamily friend, receive a $1.5 million HCC painting contract. Dávila has acknowledged knowing Jocelyne Ramirez of J's Quality Construction but denied using improper influence.

The report also says Dávila lobbied to get the company hired as a subcontractor for electrical work, even though it lacked a licensed master electrician and the necessary financial bonding.

When Dávila learned the deal wasn't getting done, the report says, he demanded a meeting in October 2009 with HCC officials at his family restaurant and "berated" them.

Records 'thrown away'

Guzman, who lost her re-election bid in 2009, said she knew nothing about the accusation that she hadn't paid an HCC vendor for campaign billboards although she reported a payment in campaign financial disclosure forms.

"I don't have any records at all," she said Thursday evening. "I've thrown everything away"

Efforts to reach Dávila Thursday were unsuccessful.

The Houston Chronicle first reported in August that HCC was investigating Flores and Dávila, but college officials refused to release their findings for months, asking the state attorney general for permission to keep it secret.

Schechter then pledged that he would support releasing the investigative report after trustees discussed it in private last week.

HCC has spent at least $335,000 on the investigation, hiring attorney Larry Veselka and his firm in April 2010.